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VICTORY: ATLANTIC COAST PROTECTED FROM OFFSHORE DRILLING

The Atlantic Coast won a major victory when the Obama administration abandoned its plans to open the southern Atlantic to offshore oil and gas drilling for the first time in decades. Leading up to the announcement, Environment America and colleagues presented Obama officials with letters signed by more than 1,000 East Coast businesses opposed to the drilling proposal.

Gov. Chris Christie, in his latest act of disavowing his own commitments to build off-shore wind, has once again vetoed legislation to require the BPU to provide a 30-day window for applications for an off-shore wind project off Atlantic City. The bill would directly benefit Fishermen’s Energy, a Cape May County-based company that has proposed a 25MW project off Atlantic City.

In a terse interagency letter, the New Jersey Department of Environment Protection (NJDEP) announced that it was terminating the permits for the construction of a massive 225,000 cubic yard dredge spoil dump adjacent to residential homes, the Barnegat Bay and the Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Eagleswood, Ocean County. The action was directly related to a nine year struggle by Eagleswood citizens and a joint lawsuit filed by Environment New Jersey, the New Jersey Conservation Foundation and Eagleswood citizens in late September 2014 to block the construction of the dredge spoil dump.

Today’s Off-Shore Wind Energy Forum, hosted by Stockton University and co-sponsored by Environment New Jersey Research and Policy Center, the Stockton University Sustainability Trust and the Business Network for Off-Shore Wind, kicks off after the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) federal sale last November of two leases for offshore wind energy development of 344,000 acres. The forum will address how New Jersey fits into the Department of Interior’s vision for expanding off-shore wind on the East Coast, the development plans for each off-shore wind developer and the opportunities for New Jersey to become a leader of an offshore wind energy industry/

On Monday, the New Jersey State Assembly passed a proposal that could help resusitate efforts to bring off-shore wind to New Jersey. The proposal, co-sponsored by Senator Bob Smith (D-Middlesex) and Senator Jim Whelan (D-Atlantic), requires the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to reopen a 30-day period for Fishermen’s Energy to resubmit an application for a demonstration off-shore wind project off Atlantic City. The demonstration project would be a five-turbine, 25-megawatt project that would help provide clean energy jobs to the state while reducing harmful global warming pollution.

Atlantic Coast communities won a major victory today, when the Obama Administration abandoned its plans to open the Atlantic seaboard to offshore oil and gas drilling for the first time in decades. Announced last January, the initial plan put beaches at risk from Florida to New Jersey, endangered marine life and would worsen our climate crisis.